The invention discloses a system and method for treating low-rank coal. The system comprises a low-rank coal pulverizing device, a low-rank coal screening device, a lump coal hot-wind dense-medium sorting device, a pulverized coal hot-wind flow sorting device, a clean coal pulverizing device, a forming device, a pyrolysis device and a waste heat recovery device, wherein the lump coal hot-wind dense-medium sorting device is provided with a lump coal inlet, a first hot wind inlet, a solid dense medium inlet, a first clean coal outlet and a first tail gas outlet; the pulverized coal hot-wind flow sorting device is provided with a pulverized coal inlet, a second hot wind inlet, a second clean coal outlet and a second tail gas outlet; the pyrolysis device is provided with a feed inlet, a semi-coke outlet and a pyrolysis oil gas outlet; the waste heat recovery device is provided with a semi-coke inlet and a hot air outlet, the semi-coke inlet is connected with the pyrolysis device, and the hot air outlet is connected with the first hot wind inlet and the second hot wind inlet. By means of the system, the gangue discharging rate of the low-rank coal can be remarkably increased, and therefore the quality and yield of pyrolyzed products in the subsequent pyrolysis process can be improved; moreover, the energy cost can be obviously lowered by recovering waste heat generated in the pyrolysis process and applying the waste heat to the gangue discharging process.